Chapter Five Hundred And Nine – 509
The forest felt weird, and Pit was worried. He padded silently through the underbrush, tail swishing through fronds and scattering droplets of early morning dew. His internal world, the forest of his home, was quietsave for the rattling thrum that emanated from the tree at his center.
What a strange noise, he muttered, stepping closer to the spiraling roots. Branches hung low, heavy with the fruit of Pits Skills, each one a glimmering pattern to the tenkus eye. These were not the source of the sound.
The trunk reached upward for a great distance, weaving around itself in a tight knot of wood and bark. It was composed of several smaller trees, bound tightly around one another and leaving space for a curious gemstone, pulsing with an intermittent beat and shaped as a four-point Nymean Star.
This was the source of the sound, and it ratcheted to a higher volume the moment Pits attention fell upon it.
Why? he asked no one. His friends were on the outside, and not even Felix could hear him. Not when he was submerged in that nasty Hunger. Pits tufted ears drooped. He had entered into his core space to help Felix with his efforts, if only by passively boosting his Companions Harmonic stats, but that left Pit with a ton of time to sit here. Thinking. It had been enough to drive him to explore his core space, and only the noise had brought him back.
It sounded like a rockslide but far too heavy, and an echoing howl that lifted his hackles. The gemstone at Pits center, his core, emanated the sound as if from down a long and narrow chasm. Pits gut lurched, the noise triggering something in his Mind that half-convinced him he wasnt on solid ground, but free falling. It wasnt the giddy rush of flight, or the aggressive drop of a leap, but a terror that gripped him as shadow swept out from all directions to swallow everything that he was
Felix? Pit gasped. He sent his thoughts scurrying across their bond but, as before, felt the message dissolve against an invisible barrier. This doesnt feel like Felix. It should. It should!
Their connection was strongest at Pits center. In fact, the fruit of Etheric Concordance, their bond Skill, hung closest to the four-pronged gemstone. The feel of Felix was normally here, like a cloak thrown over everything, but it was being choked away by that sensation of plummeting descent. The sound of it tasted cold and stale, an echo across an endless expanse, reverberating like the ghost of something that was once natural.
Is thisis this the Hunger?
Pit knew the plan, knew what Felix was attempting, but this
Everything shook.
Squawww! Pit cried out, spreading his paws and wings for balance as the entire forest was jostled. What?
Again. The earth heaved and trees swayed, ripping from the dirt and toppling. Savage pain lanced across his breast, a deep, icy ache that compounded with every fallen branch. Pit stumbled forward, eyes fixed on the woven trunks of his core, and on the gemstone that was still vibrating with a rumbling detonation. It quivered, harder than the forest around him, as if it were trying to rip itself free of his core space.
Stay still! Pit demanded, throwing his Willpower and Intent at the thing. Vines and branches grew across it, lashing over the four points of the glowing gem and binding it tight. They immediately began to wither, splintering almost too fast for Pit to keep up.
Felix! What are you doing?
Oh crap, this hurts way more than you said, Felix!
Beef shouted into the light, his mouth burning every time he opened it. Hed been all but blinded once the stormwall of Primordial Essence had hit him, flooded with an incandescent, burning radiance that shined inside of him as much as outside. Closing his eyes did nothing against it, and Beef hadnt ever been all that good at shutting down his Perception or that weird Affinity stat.
His everything was vibrating, and holy balls was that the worst.
Beefs core space had been rendered down to soup once the stormwall had hit him, turning even his central most area into molten light. It swirled around him now, his old, familiar room indistinguishable from the maelstrom, and Beef tried to stop being sad.
I do! Shes my favorite!
Good!
Beef was smiling, the memory bringing back so many other things. That had been three years ago. He could ignore the pain while looking at that scene, the memory made into a movie, but before he knew it the tableaux vanished. Hey! he protested.
A LIE.
That face of bones reformed in the maelstrom, looming so high that Beef had to crane his head back to see it all. Its voice was like the light; so utterly pervasive that it vibrated inside his chest and head.
Gah! You again! What lie?
THE LIES WE TELL OURSELVES.
I repeat, bone man: what lie? Beef gritted his teeth against the burning agony. That was a memory. A good one, too! It wasnt a lie.
LIES ARE MORE THAN WHAT IS SAID, BEEFHAMMER.
The memory came back, resummoned from the storm, but this time from a different angle. This time, Beef saw the stack of papers sitting on the table, half-hidden in another plastic back. Divorce papers.
The memory flashed, changing to show Beefs old room. It was days earlier, and Michael was huddled on his bed, listening to his parents fight somewhere downstairs. Tears streaked his little face, but it was half-buried in his oversized pillow.
Beef grimaced. So maybe not the best memory. Whats your point? What does this have to do with anything?
The bone face of the Primordial was alien. Disproportionate and possessed of bizarre expressions, it still conveyed a sense of emphatic sorrow. A heaviness that threatened to smother Beef entirely.
LIES CONTAIN TRUTHS. YOU MUST CONFRONT YOUR LIES TO SEE IT.
See what? Beef asked, his agony only half due to the light. What lies? That my parents were, like, shitty at being married? Duh. I dont need a bone face to tell me that. Ugh, he grunted, the storm wobbling out of his grasp once again. Damn it! I just need some help! Cant you help me figure this out? Its your power going crazy in here!
I AM HELPING YOU, CHILD. YOU MUST ONLY LISTEN.
Beef paused, the memory of his room shifting. It moved closer to his window. To the latch that had, at the time, held the thing shut. Beef shook himself, and the memory scattered. Cant I just make a core space and be done with all this cryptic bullshit?
CAN YOU, UNBOUND?
Again, Beef said through his teeth. Fuck you. Yes. Yes I can.
